Charges in fatal Starks crash disputed

SKOWHEGAN — The defense attorney for a Madison man charged in connection with a fatal 2015 crash in Starks has filed a motion in court to dismiss the charge, citing violations of discovery rules involving police notes as evidence from the crash.

Attorney Brad Grant also said this week that two investigators from the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office wrote in their incident reports that there was “no crime involved” and recommended that the case be closed against Jonathan Cayford, who is charged with manslaughter as the driver in the crash that killed Clint J. Briggs on a backcountry road west of Anson.

Jonathan Cayford

Jonathan Cayford

Jonathan Cayford was charged with manslaughter after an investigation into a November 2015 crash involving this 1998 Nissan Maxima on Anson Road in Starks. Contributed file photo

The original notes taken on the crash, if there were any, have since been destroyed, Grant said, constituting the discovery violation. Grant says in his motion to dismiss that the deputies knew their notes should have been part of the discovery material under the sheriff’s office official policy of “Recording of Suspects of Serious Crimes & the Preservation of Notes and Records.” He also said the deputies’ notes should be part of the discovery under Rule 16 of the Maine Rules of Criminal Procedure.

But there may be an exception to Rule 16 for written materials that reflect the investigating officer’s thoughts and conclusions about the case, according to state law. It says that “the attorney for the State is not required to disclose legal research or records, correspondence, reports, or memoranda to the extent that they contain the mental impressions, conclusions, opinions, or legal theories of the attorney for the State or members of his or her legal staff.“

District Attorney Maeghan Maloney said it’s not the job of police to determine if a crime was committed. That’s why she brought the case to a grand jury.

Cayford, then 24, was indicted by the Somerset County grand jury in December 2016 on a manslaughter charge in connection with the fatal crash more than a year earlier, in which police said he was passing cars at 80 mph. Briggs was killed and Cayford and another person were injured in the crash on Nov. 13, 2015, on Anson Road in Starks.

Briggs, 21, a passenger in the car driven by Cayford, was found dead at the scene, the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office said at the time.

In court documents, Grant further asserts that the original notes taken by sheriff’s deputies as part of the investigation after the crash have been destroyed, leaving only their accident reports as evidence.

“The officers destroyed their notes in preparation of their report,” Grant said by phone this week. “There’s a policy that the sheriff’s department has that explains that that’s discoverable – especially in this situation. Not only is it discoverable, but it’s probably exculpatory, meaning it helps my client because those notes probably formed the basis of their recommendation that the case should be closed.”

Grant noted that Deputy Joseph Jackson was the lead investigator in the case. Jackson indicated in his incident report: “Status: No Crime Involved.” Jackson has stated in court documents that he does not recall taking handwritten notes during the crash investigation, but if he had, he would have destroyed them at the time he typed his report.

Deputy Craig Dyer took notes but destroyed them when his official report was done, according to court documents.

Maloney, the district attorney for Kennebec and Somerset counties, said that destroying notes after writing a report is consistent with sheriff’s office policy and that all information was provided to Grant as required under the rules of discovery.

“It is the work of law enforcement to gather all the evidence,” Maloney said in an email to the Morning Sentinel. “It is the work of the District Attorney and the Grand Jury to decide whether or not the evidence constitutes a crime. Upon my recommendation, the Grand Jury indicted Mr. Cayford for vehicle manslaughter. We are ready to proceed to trial.”

A tentative date for a hearing on the motion to dismiss has been set for two days, Aug. 31 and Sept. 1, Grant said. Grant also has filed a motion to suppress as evidence all statements made to police while Cayford was in custody because, he said, the statements were made in violation of Cayford’s rights to remain silent under the Miranda ruling.

He added that it took the district attorney more than a year to bring the case before a grand jury, suggesting that there were “major issues that the state was dealing with.”

Maloney would not say whether a blood-alcohol test was done on Cayford after the fatal accident.

She said Maine bar rules prevent her from discussing the facts before the conclusion of the jury trial.

“The reason is clear,” she said. “We want to be able to pick an impartial jury that will decide the case based only on what they hear in the courtroom.”

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